As Lewis Hamilton goes into the World Championship decider, Mercedes has issued the following movie, starring John Hurt…
Click here
It’s just a shame that they cannot use TV footage…
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joeblogsf1 
Not Hurt´s greatest moment! Sounds like Bertie Wooster´s stab at the prep school poetry prize.
It’s easy in a cynical world to say that, but I thought it was an eloquently insightful portrait of the driver and the sport.
Joe, you are go to man for F1. Thanks for sharing.
‘. . . You’ll be a man, my son . . .’?!
Dear god, no . . . boring video.
Rostrum camera ‘captures excitement’ of F1 . . .
You’ll be grey man-in-the-street, nation’s anonymous backbone.
They should have hired Lotus’ stunt truck, re-badged it and jumped over a Ferrari and a McLaren.
I think you may have missed several points. Firstly, they were not allowed to use F1 footage without having to pay for it. Secondly, it is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1895, when he world was a very different place. However, it has a lot of things in it that illustrate the kind of code that English gentlemen have had ever since. Read it and appreciate it fully.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Points:-
1. You made it clear in the original post that they couldn’t use original footage –
My implied argument was that they could have been a bit more creative by generating their own interesting video content.
2. I’m fully aware of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘input’ –
Idealism at its finest – not sure how many ‘English gentlemen’ remain.
if anyone should ‘read it and appreciate it fully’ it should be those who run F1. It might make for a more equitable sport.
As the poem was inspired by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, who was born in Edinburgh, it perhaps better illustrates the code that British gentleman have had ever since.
Joe; wonderful stuff – I love the Merc stills in B & W and I never tire of hearing Kipling’s famous words – thanks for reproducing them here. As a tennis fan, it’s also special for me. I’m convinced you’ll also be aware that some of Kipling’s words appear over the players’ entrance to centre court at Wimbledon – “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same”. Appropriate for Centre Court and appropriate for the battle between Lewis & Nico.
If the entrance to the Abu Dhabi pitlane had a gravel trap…
As someone who was involved with the “moving” pictures more than 20 years ago now, I really like the “stills” treatment.
More emotion this way. Makes you think about the words more.
One of the best poems of all time.
Rudyard Kipling I belive. I don’t think I have ever heard the whole thing before. Very apt for this weekends contest. I hope they can both keep to it.
……and they did 🙂
Joe: Rudyard Kipling’s poem is framed and hangs on the wall in my bathroom…………..how appropriate for this weekend!
NWC.
what’s the title of the poem?
If
Which is F1 spelt backwards, as Murray was often wont to remind us…
By the way I’m at the racetrack. If I happen to see you I’ll say hello and thank you for the blog!
Didn’t you used to race BMWs years ago?
Thanks, a refreshing change
I prefer the muted stills, I believe they enhance the audio
video may distract
What if Hamilton doesn’t win the championship tomorrow for some ‘fault’ of Mercedes: reliability, bad strategy, poor pit stop? Will we see Hamilton storming out of Mercedes … and back at McLaren … and Alonso at Mercedes? Is that why Alonso has not signed yet with McLaren?
“What if Hamilton doesn’t …” If only
That’s Motor Racing.
He’ll take a very apropo line from Kipling’s If. Or he won’t….
Very nice, a refreshing change from the hype of F1.
Thank you.
“It’s just a shame that they cannot use TV footage…” I think not. Stills matching Kipling’s words worked really well for me.
Re: Nico needs help. I believe Felipe Massa will do all he can to provide that help.
“English gentlemen” what a fabulous politically incorrect thing to say… well done, I LOVE IT 🙂
Great poem, and I think the stills are more dramatic than video would have been, keeping the attention on the words.
May the best man win tomorrow, I only hope that it is decided fairly on the track and not a mechanical problem or the dreaded d****e p****s that determine the championship winner.
I think this may have gone further over some heads than distance the truck cleared the Lotus driver by.
Joe, it’s rather noticable that you left Nico’s name out of this blog post.
Beautiful, I can’t understand I’ve never read or heard this. Thanks for that Joe.
I realise this probably wont make into the blog before the race is finished, but did you notice what Ron said to the BBC on Saturday? Basically his driver line up depends on “what happens tomorrow”. Well the only significant thing which will happen on Sunday is either Nico or Lewis will be champion. So does Ron’s comment imply that should Lewis not get the championship, that his own driver line-up will be affected? Lewis back to MacLaren in 2016? Fernando out of a job ? Is this the reason Lewis has not started negotiating 2016 yet? Could this possibly be all related to Spa? Nico’s punishment is that he’s not allowed to be champion this year ?
With different imagery, this would have made a really fitting memorial to Brackley’s first championship wins.
This time round, well, whatever.
Global corporate buys existing championship winning team, tries to do F1 on the (relatively) cheap and goes backwards, throws vast sums of money at team in belated recognition, replaces their most able and respected leader with pygmies who weren’t around when the targets were being missed due to the inadequate budget, then wins championship again, possibly due to brilliance of said previously departed leader.
Remind me again what is remotely heroic about any of this?
What a class act Mercedes have been through all their dominance, much more than Red Bull ever were. Even though Mercedes had effectively no opposition, I have enjoyed this season more than previous ones, probably since 2010. Nice nod to Nico’s post-Spa slump in popularity and his reaction to it (being pretty honest about what it did to him). Nice also that who I consider (through all the bling) to be one of the most ‘human’ racing drivers won out in the end. Shame about the reliability playing a role, but there’s poetic justice there and it didn’t seem to make much difference anyway
Only good Lord would go for something like that in a rather superficial world of F1, I guess. 😉
Agree that b/w stills only increase the substance of this video. Funny, that its substance has been written just few years before car racing was invented.